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Thank you to the Viet Nam Association for Medical Education for hosting the 8th National Viet Nam Medical Education Conference. It is a pleasure to be here again.
Conferences like this play a vital role in training health professionals to provide safe, quality, integrated care, which is essential for achieving universal health coverage, or UHC. Universal health coverage ensures that all people can access the full range of essential health services without financial hardship, enabling them to live healthier lives.
As we think about how to build health systems for the future, based on the principles of UHC, it is important to be mindful of the fact that population health-care needs are changing – bringing new and different challenges for health-care workers. These challenges include an aging population, the rise of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), and the health impacts of climate change.
So today, I’d like to highlight three key opportunities for addressing these challenges – which align with this year’s conference theme.
The first opportunity is in partnerships. This year, for the first time, the National Medication Education Conference takes place at Vin University, a not-for-profit, private university.
The collaboration with Vin University underlines the importance of partnerships and the role that private providers can play in medical education, echoed in the conference’s theme, “Strategic alliance: health education and professional practice”.
Collaboration among health professionals, academia, networks of experts, technical partners and in WHO’s case, our network of Collaborating Centres, will be essential in helping us deliver on the promise of better health care for all.
Second, innovation, which offers immense potential for improving the quality and accessibility of care that health professionals deliver, as well as the training they receive to prepare them for their careers. This conference features discussions on AI, digital tools, simulation and game-based learning—technologies that are reshaping both medical education and health-care delivery.
Innovations like these can bridge gaps in health-care access, and help find solutions to some of the challenges I have mentioned.
But it is important to remember that innovation does not only mean high technology. Sometimes innovation is about creating the conditions in which local innovations, often based on low-tech solutions, can succeed.
Let me give you an example. Recently, I was privileged to visit Yen Thanh District General Hospital in Nghe An province, where I saw how innovation could overcome a water shortage that threatened safe care.
Under the leadership of Director Dr Luyen Van Trinh and his head of Infection Control, Dr Phan Thu Thuy, the hospital came up with a simple solution, fit for the local context, that created a more secure water supply. This local innovation not only increased the hospital’s climate resilience and environmental sustainability, but also its capacity to carry out medical procedures, benefiting both staff and patients.
The point of the story is that we need to be training health-care professionals who are innovators – understanding the benefits technologies like AI can bring, yes; but also understanding that sometimes innovation is simply about doing something differently in a local setting, for a better result.
The third opportunity is in data and evidence – and it is great to see the importance of this reflected in the conference agenda as well. To improve health outcomes, we must continue gathering evidence on what works in medical education and practice, as well as make smart use of data we already have, to strengthen safe and effective care.
The themes of partnerships, innovation, and data are central to WHO’s work with our Member States on shaping the health workforce for the future – the ultimate aim of which is to ensure that all health professionals have the skills and competencies to serve individuals and communities, recognizing their needs and concerns, and providing them with the most appropriate high-quality services.
In conclusion, WHO looks forward to continuing to support this work in Viet Nam, including strengthened health workforce strategies and policies.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak. I wish you all a successful and productive conference as we work toward our common goal of a safer and healthier Viet Nam!
Xin cảm ơn!